MV & EE

Matt Valentine and Erika Elder are the kind of rustic Americana nymphs that will always be playing music whilst ensconsed in the earth from whence they came - no matter how warped that music may become. As MV & EE, the duo have managed to simultaneously evoked a languid style of neo-folk rock wizardry whilst crafting deceptively lithe musical arrangements - looking laidback, but always on the ball. On their latest LP Space Homestead the magic continues. The atmospheric opener 'Heart Like Barbara Steel' is more like Mark McGuire/Emeralds ambience territory, before breaking into the woozy folk of 'Workingman's Smile', the reverb-heavy and C&W-in-sepia 'Sweet Sure Gone' and the ethereal 'Moment'. As always it isn't so straightforward, and the haunted blues of 'Shit's Creek', the lagorous guitar solo on 'Too Far To See' and the cathartic sprawl of 'Wasteland' show their psychedelic hand in full glory. It's a strangely alluring album, much like the couple themselves, and is likely to grab you gently but firmly and lead you into the woods, never to be seen again.


You can grab Space Homestead (out through Woodsist) here.

MV & EE- Workingman's Smile
MV & EE - Wasteland

Doubling Down On The Family's White Fence

White Fence kicked off 2012 by combining with Ty Segall (I can't stop mentioning him, can I?) with the great record Hair, and now there is his double volume opus, Family Perfume Vol I & II. This is ambitious stuff. I know Tim Presley - and a lot of his contemporaries - are voracious musicians, continually pumping out the gems, but to put them all on one release risks shining up the occasional dud. And so it does with Family Perfume. Don't get me wrong - White Fence's penchant for skewed paisley rock with a dash of psychedelic charm is on full display here, and there are some absolutely warbled garage pop corkers to be found in this treasure trove - but some of these tracks feel a little half-baked. Maybe it's because after Hair, where Presley was all brushed up production-wise, I'd like him to step out from behind the 4 track and static hiss. I'm not talking about getting The Arcade Fire to back him or some such nonsense, I just think that now's the time to open things up a little more. Anyway, personally I like Vol II as an album proper more, but Vol I has some real highlights, which I've included below. There's 29 songs to sift through (chosen from a purported cache of 80), so take your time and enjoy. It's great to have something this ambitious floating around in the burgeoning garage rock movement (if you can call it such a thing) that embraces touchstones such as The Beatles (think of The White Album), and whilst the end result doesn't reach such heady highs, it certainly gives it a red hot shake. But seriously Tim - get on the blower to Segall and get another album running...


Family Perfume is out now on Woodsist.

White Fence - Balance Yr Heart
White Fence - Down PNX
White Fence - Take Away Life's Endless Take

Strangely Transfixed By Royal Baths (Updated)

I'm still not wholeheartedly convinced that I like Royal Baths. I mean, the Brooklyn-via-San Francisco band tick the right boxes - dark, brooding, garage based tendencies, drone tinged rock, a love of Spacemen 3... Yet I can't quite get them. Whether it's because I think/thought they're style over substance, or that they are/were a little over-hyped, I'm not sure. I wasn't enamoured with their debut Litanies (on Woodsist), but I listened to it quite a bit anyway. Weird.

I'm equally flummoxed by how much I'm enjoying them right now. I find their songs to be fairly insidious in how they squirrel under my skin without my notice or permission. It kinda hurts my head, because I can't put my finger on it, yet there it is, on repeat, making me happy and maudlin at the same time. Their new album, Better Luck Next Life, is coming out through Kanine next week, and it will be interesting if there is a similar sensation to the first. Likewise, I'll keep you posted as to whether it bewitches me the way the first one did, or if I genuinely dig it (or genuinely loathe it - nothing is off the table here...).

UPDATE - Royal Baths will be playing in Brisbane! Yep, they have lined up Woodland for Thursday March 29. I think it's time I settled my love/hate stance once and for all...

Royal Baths - Black Sheep
Royal Baths - Darling Divine

Don't Nodzzz Off In The Second Innings

I hadnt listened to Nodzzz at all until last year when my friend Leigh was wearing one of their t-shirts (I think it was the night before the ill-fated Intelligence show that never was...). Leigh did a very brief schooling on the snotty San Fran trio, and I raced home to try out their self-titled LP. Very excellent, I thought, and whilst I am yet to see them live (sigh...), I await the day with bated breath.

Now I realise this is an "old" album - its been around for the best part of the year - but Innings (on Woodsist) is a hell of a lot of fun, and it's something I think too many people overlooked in their rush to get all chillwaved and Odd Futured. It was unfairly maligned because it was so short, haphazard and carefree. In fact, i tended to agree, and in this day and age of disposable music, I very rarely come back to disappointments to give them a (somewhat deserved) second shot. But I felt I owed it to Nodzzz, and in the end I am very glad I did. Its not perfect by any means, but it is so fun and there are some absolute killers here that it actually gets you excited for their future releases all over again. They are actually fun, not trying to be. Its coming into summer here in Oz, and I think this is a tasty soundtrack to some silly sunny times.

Nodzzz - Time (What's It Going To Do)